NextIteration

I firmly believe this. When the hospice nurse called me Saturday morning, she told me that my mom had been up most of the night grasping her bed rail, struggling for breath and had even said "it's so hard to die". When I got there, it was clear she was mostly gone, but I didn't really know how much longer it would be, days? weeks? Met with her hospice team at 9:30 and they said that she was well into the process, so I called everyone that might want to come say goodbye that I could think of, my spouse raced home to get my son, I texted my daughter to call me ASAP, I called my cousins (Mom was the last matriarch of our extended family), my sister ran home to get her kids. The chaplain arrived just before everyone arrived back and said a prayer of letting go and then everyone started piling in. You could say "Mommy, It's ME" or "Auntie, it's ME" and she open her eyes and acknowledge you but she was beyond speaking. My daughter called and we put the phone up to her ear so she could say goodbye as well. My mom died with everyone in the room, and the chaplain still out in the parking lot. She waited for everyone that needed to, to get there to say goodbye and then just quietly left. My grandmother did much the same, even waiting for people to fly in, and went the next morning. I think the opposite is true as well, that some people want to be alone, my therapist and I were talking about these two extremes yesterday - and I made an inappropriate crack comparing this to the away animals prefer to pass - they try to get away. We laughed, and then I cried. Sigh. Guess it will be like this for awhile. I am worried about my daughter, but thankfully she'll be home in two weeks so we can talk this through. She is in a very prestigious (well known national dance company repertoire) piece for her fall faculty concert this week and next and I just couldn't let her miss the opportunity by having her race home, not knowing when or if Mom was going to pass. The flip side is that I knew that dancing would be the best way for her to express her emotions. I hope I made the right decision. Healing thoughts for your husband, and prayers for the wee one. (((Micks)))

Thanks again for the thoughts, and the wonderful stories! We did the memorial planning yesterday, we'll be having it on the 29th because my daughter will be home for Thanksgiving weekend. She's being cremated so we had the convenience of time. So silly, my first real hard cry came watching the Hey Jude performance from last ngiht's DWTS, you just never know what will trigger you. This will also put the the lid on it for the holiday season, all my closest relatives have gone between now and New Year's. It was from Thanksgiving, Mom just went a few weeks earlier. I missed my mom's cue that she was done, she told me that my head would explode because she'd asked and had a priest minister the Sacrament of the Sick, and I thought she meant it because she'd not been a practicing Catholic or much of a believer anymore and joked about her liking Pope Frank, she just laughed along with me. What she was telling me was that she was ready to go - I just figured it out yesterday morning, weeks after the fact. Warm thoughts for everyone else that is struggling.

David Brock was a proud card carrying member of "the vast right-wing conspiracy" that upon further thorough examination of many of the Clinton stories/scandals that he created and contributed to in publications like the American Spectator did a complete 180, he founded Media Matters.

It happened a bit more frequently in the past, but not lately; I'm sure this particular appearance was due to her role as the forum moderator.

That's what I had too! And I always felt like I got the better deal over the Easy Bake Oven owners. ;) The one and only time I ever shopped on Black Friday, I was about eight months pregnant with my son. Money was tight because we were saving for the blessed unpaid maternity leave, so I sat up late Thanksgiving night and mapped out my plan and coupons for "matching prices" and headed over to Toys R Us at 5 a.m. My daughter was three so it was her year for the big Kitchen. I was in and out of there with my haul in about an hour, it's helpful to be hugely pregnant, people don't try to mow you over and they will even help you get the huge boxes down, lol.

Thank you all. My mom had said on Monday that she just couldn't mount another fight (go through transition and rehab) and asked to be moved to a single room in a hospice. There was some back and forth through the week but we found a bed for her on Wednesday, were unable to transport her on Thursday she was having such a bad day, but move her on Friday. She had a terrible night, I got a call at 7:30 asking permission to give her additional pain medications, to which I said yes and raced the hour to get there. She was gone by 11:30. I am now a big believer that hospice care givers are angels from heaven (I knew this but forgot), and when they tell you that a person has entered the dying process, they know their business. It probably sounds silly, but this is very odd and unhinged feeling, not having any parents at what I feel like is a pretty young age of 53.

I'm in shock, my mom just died. I've misplaced my phone and my sunglasses. I'm just lost.

I had typed out a long response but most of this aside from discussion of RTCs vs plushy private pay therapeutic boarding schools... is what I wanted to say. And that Rosie has talked about some of her children facing different learning challenges, sometimes I think she means well by trying to raise awareness and destigmatizing, with her overshares.

It's a shame that this painful situation is being played out in public. The nasty texts, the interviews, all of it. My impression about Rosie outing Chelsea's mental health issues was that bad things can happen when people cold-turkey off psychotropic medications (like suicide) without close medical supervision. Chelsea admits that the break up of Rosie and Kelli caused her to become depressed but gets peevish about being described as having a mental illness. A therapeutic boarding school (fancy name for a residential treatment center) generally speaking isn't going to take a kid that doesn't have a pretty dire diagnosis. I don't think that there can be any winners here no matter what either of them says publicly. Who knows the truth about the birth mom, but Chelsea sure as hell high tailed it out of there quickly. Rosie has a big mouth, something she admitted to in the interviews Monday night - not that I think this is a good idea, but it seems like now that this is all out in the public she's sort of using it as a platform to address mental illness in teens more broadly with her perception remark.

The only thing I got out of that mess was that one of them has a speech problem and seems horrifically socially awkward. I busted a gut this morning when Heilmann told Mika and Joe about the viral Christie videos (both of which Rachel featured last night) and they were left completely flat footed. Their producers even suck.

Her roots were awful!

She gets to work with Ethan Steifel and Kenny Wormald, who cares if it's a Lifetime move, the last movie ended up on OWN I think. Yay! I'm happy for her, and it's DANCE movie! Twofer. I agree completely.

People in the Bush White house were liars, Joe. Not a good idea, remember? They lied us into destabilizing the Middle East.

Why don't certain over-controlling family members realize that Thanksgiving takes place on the correct Thursday, no matter what is most convenient for them? And when their niece has spent $550 bucks to come home for Thanksgiving (because of lots of emotional things) that you can't just arbitrarily try to move it to Friday? And because you are so freaking controlling that you'd try to do such a thing, nobody really cares if you're around for what the rest of the family plans, even if it's inconvenient for you? /rant

I really hope that time away has helped heal Paige, and interactions with nurturing adults/teachers.

Cash must be getting tight, time for salacious interviews restating what's already been said for the most part. Given what we do know about Chelsea, she's probably matured to about a 15, or 16 year old. This seems like very predictable rebellious behavior. Or, it's tough love.

Never. More FFHUGS for JellyBeans, Skittl and BigSkyGirl! ♥ Mom had her angiogram yesterday, no repairs necessary. Phew. That's one relief. "Mr. Boss" cardiologist is hot as heck and totally crushable, so that's another point in his yes column. ;) Thoughts about religion, as long as you aren't trying to proselytize to me or interfere with the separation of church and state, we're good. I actually admire people of great faith and devoutness. My mom was funny the other day - she said "your head is going to explode", I asked her why and she responded that she'd requested to have a priest come bless her. I laughed and said "no Mom, that doesn't make my head explode, but it does tell me that you really like Pope Francis!" She had to agree that I'd hit upon the crux of it, but I know it's also because she was very afraid about dying.

Which is why I generally refrain from ever speaking or typing my thoughts. Here's the thing though, i feel uninformed about how the women feel about it generally, have read a lot of blogs mostly about hijab, but would love to have or watch a dialog held with Muslim women so I'd have a better understanding.

Couldn't do that, CNBC is a sister station.

IOKIYAR. Lying, starting wars, tripling the national debt, exploding the deficits, blowing up the global economy, all, always, okay if you are a Republican. That debate was a joke, and that characterization doesn't even count the lying. I've always been shocked about Rubio being elected, because he has a shady/questionable past in FL politics when it comes to money.

Birthdays. In my immediate family, birthdays started for my dad the oldest on Christmas Eve (and we always made a big deal about it separately with gifts and cake, we still do cake as dessert that evening to remember him), and ran monthly through April in order of age. I always thought that was kind of neat. My daughter was actually born on Labor Day - which made for some really big fun family birthday parties her first couple years with a barbecue, and after that a separate family and friend celebrations (I do have to admit that I used to give some back to school clothes with the toys for that). My son is one of many January birthdays. I got to pick his so I picked Martin Luther King's actual birthday so it's special. When he was little, always a separate celebration and gifts (usually scooped up during Christmas shopping or something really special from an after-Christmas sale on the "cheap" or cheaper anyways), one with family and one with friends. Now, we just have one big dinner out with gifts for all the January "babies" (my cousin, my son, my mom and we include my sister who is Feb 2), I don't think anyone feels short-changed. My birthday was pretty neat and I cashed in BIG in 2nd grade - Easter, First Communion and Birthday all in one day. My birthday has never fallen on Easter Sunday since... and I'm old now, lol.

I felt like that was insinuated in the interview with Niya. They knew this SOR had a reputation for being abusive, ergo the Officer Slam nickname. I'm sure the kids are also aware that they can be carted off to juvie and end up in the pri$on $ys$tem for bad behavior in school as well. Disgusting. For the record, I am in no way condoning bad behavior by children in school, or trying to say that discipline is not important. It's all in the type of discipline, and the frequency and fairness with which it is meted out.

The problem, is that South Carolina has codified statutes that make misbehaving in school criminal. Think about this, if a parent treated a child like that in public, what would happen? Abuse charges. eta: $1000 bail for Niya should tell you something. They get the kids in school (mostly poor and of color or learning/behaviorally disabled) and into the juvenile justice system they go and then off to a private pri$on and so it goes, on and on.

This is part of a problem that leads to children of lesser means falling behind in school, and it starts in kindergarten. "Officers" should never be in a classroom for discipline, unless there is a weapon or other out of control violence involved, full stop. Bossa Nova beat me to it, she was also on Chris Hayes and was very articulate relating what really happened. Jeebus, the school to prison pipeline needs to stop. YMMV.

Hugs Jellybeans. ♥